With "Inclusion," Steven Epstein argues that strategies to achieve
diversity in medical research mask deeper problems, ones that might
require a different approach and different solutions. Formal
concern with this issue, Epstein shows, is a fairly recent
phenomenon. Until the mid-1980s, scientists often studied groups of
white, middle-aged men - and assumed that conclusions drawn from
studying them would apply to the rest of the population. But
struggles involving advocacy groups, experts, and Congress led to
reforms that forced researchers to diversify the population from
which they drew for clinical research. While the prominence of
these inclusive practices has offered hope to traditionally
undeserved groups, Epstein argues that it has drawn attention away
from the tremendous inequalities in health that are rooted not in
biology but in society.